Thunderbird Fights Mimlos-Whale
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There was the great flood.
At that time, Thunderbird fought with Mimlos-whale. The battle lasted a long time. For a long time the battle was undecided. Thunderbird in the air could not whip Mimlos-whale in the water. Thunderbird would seize Mimlos-whale in his talons and try to carry Mimlos-whale to his nest in the mountains.
The battle between them was terrible. The noise that Thunderbird made when he flapped his wings shook the mountains. They stripped the timber there. They tore the trees out by their roots. Then Mimlos-whale got away. Again Thunderbird caught Mimlos-whale. Again they fought a terrible battle in another place. All the trees there were torn out by their roots. Again Mimlos-whale escaped. Many times they fought thus.
Each time Thunderbird caught Mimlos whale there was a terrible battle, and all the trees in that place were uprooted. At last Mimlos-whale escaped to the deep ocean, and Thunderbird gave up the fight.
That is why the killer whale still lives in the ocean today.
In those places where Thunderbird and Mimlos-whale fought, to this day, no trees grow. Those places are the prairies on the Olympic Peninsula today.
Tales from the Hoh and Quileute, Albert Reagan
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 46, No. 182
Native American Tribes of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington State
